I. Avant-propos

Nothing could be more delicious as a préface to this volume than the accompanying Bill of Sale with its stately légal phraseology interwoven with touches of poetic humor. As a matter of fact, however, Daudet never really owned the mill, ** ce qui ne m* empêchait pas" he says later, **dy passer de longues journées de rêves^ de souvenirs."

1. Pampérigouste. An imaginary place in Provence. It hère represents the village of Fontvieille, a few miles east of Arles. In Port-Tarascon it figures very prominently as a monastery near Tarascon.

2. le sieur : Master ; as in old English. It is generally équivalent to seigneur and sire. Each of thèse three words has been at some time a title of nobility = lord. But sieur and sire hâve served also as mock titles.

3. SOUS les garanties de droit ei; de fait : légal and actual cwnership

guaranteed,